Weave

Warp Yarns: Consistent Characteristics of Feminist Movements

“The patriarchy, racism, colonialism and neoliberalism coexist, fuse and mutually strengthen themselves, structuring and intensifying inequalities that express themselves in the continuum of violence that affects poor, feminized and racialized bodies”

— Cockburn, 2004; Medina Garcia, 2018

Multiple forms of violence

Across all countries, feminist movements are simultaneously tackling multiple, interconnected forms of violence, discrimination and oppression, applying an intersectional lens to their work. First, they are addressing multiple forms of interpersonal violence, including intimate partner violence, sexual violence and harassment. In addition, they face political violence, cyber violence, police violence and more.

In Nicaragua, for example, members of the feminist movement are facing mass political imprisonment. In South Africa, the feminist movement was directly aligned with the anti-apartheid movement. In India, feminist movements occupy the political space and stand at the frontlines of democratic struggles. And in Australia, we see alignment with Indigenous rights movements, anti-racism campaigns and police brutality.

Indigenous women are arguably erased from both Indigenous rights movements and women's rights movements. Ye, they are at the forefront of both, claiming space. They are shaping the national conversation: a senate inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, a separate national plan to end violence against Indigenous women and children, and a landmark coronial inquest and resulting report/recommendations to address violence against Aboriginal women in Australia's Northern Territory. Indigenous women still find themselves excluded from policy spaces (evident in a recent government announcement of an 'expert panel' to look how to prevent VAWC that included NO Indigenous women) but draw upon collective power of movements and advocacy to speak back to white patriarchal colonial systems and structures that seek to marginalise and erase them.

Triple Burden

Across all sites, feminist movements operate at multiple levels and have a triple burden of responsibility. First, they advocate for policy change and justice. Second, they provide direct services to survivors of VAWG when governments withdraw or do not provide adequate resources. At the same time, they fight for their own survival. They do this, often, with incredibly limited resources, and juggle competing demands of different donors and funders, including the governments that give them money with one hand and oppress them with the other.

This is illustrated well by Galiwin'ku Women's Space, whose case study also highlights the importance of holding systems and institutions to account, even though this can lead to backlash.

Collective strength and courage: “We are still going because we’re still together.”

Care is political and the research showed the importance of collective care in the context of exhausting work across all sites. Caring for each other is instrumental in sustaining individual lives, and the movement as a whole. The movements demonstrated that the only way to continue their work over decades, as they have done, was to take care of themselves as individuals and as a collective.

For example, in Nicaragua, women activated their pre-existing feminist networks at the local, national or international levels and developed new networks of a humanitarian nature in order to respond to the urgent needs of the direct and indirect victims of the repression. In Australia, caring for Country, and healing ceremonies are integrated into their efforts.

“We were doing the more humanitarian work there. So, it was like looking for and obtaining provisions, cooking and taking food for the youngsters, certain medical supplies, bicarbonate for the teargas, white vinegar; anything we could find that we knew could be of use to them…” Trans woman, Nicaragua

Collective care

Care is political and the research showed the importance of collective care in the context of exhausting work across all sites.

Caring for each other is instrumental in sustaining individual lives, and the movement as a whole. The movements demonstrated that the only way to continue their work over decades, as they have done, was to take care of themselves as individuals and as a collective.

For example, in Nicaragua, women activated their pre-existing feminist networks at the local, national or international levels and developed new networks of a humanitarian nature in order to respond to the urgent needs of the direct and indirect victims of the repression. In Australia, care frameworks are embedded within Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing, such as kinship systems (see Gurrutu in Galiwinku Women's Space) and this includes caring for Country.

“We were doing the more humanitarian work there. So, it was like looking for and obtaining provisions, cooking and taking food for the youngsters, certain medical supplies, bicarbonate for the teargas, white vinegar; anything we could find that we knew could be of use to them…”

— Trans woman, Nicaragua

Weft Yarns: Evolving characteristics of feminist movements

Frameworks

Not everyone sees themselves as ‘feminist’, and we have seen women’s movements align themselves with various frameworks in the fight to address violence against women and girls. For example, in the 1970s and 80s, women’s movements we deeply aligned with movements for democracy, civil rights and racial justice. Then, in the 1990s, VAWG was framed within a Human Rights context. Women’s rights are human rights, was the catchphrase. There was a focus on documenting VAWG as violations of women’s rights and presenting them to regional and international bodies.

In Australia, we see this with a greater recognition that First Nations women experience disproportionately high rates of violence, driven by the intersection of gender inequality and the ongoing impacts of colonization. This led to a world-first National Plan on ending VAWG for and buy First Nations women, and the Senate inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, the report handed down this year.

Strategies

Women’s movements continuously adapt their strategies in response to various factors. Initially, efforts to highlight violence against women and girls (VAWG) were informal, grassroots, and sometimes clandestine—like poster-making in India and small gatherings in homes. Later, these movements collaborated with researchers to demonstrate the scale and impact of VAWG to governments. For example, in 1995, "Confites en el infierno" ("Candies in Hell") was the first study measuring intimate partner violence in Nicaragua, accompanied by awareness campaigns and promoting multisectoral efforts

Across countries, specific VAWG cases have ignited mass protests and spurred legislative changes. The Mathura case in India sparked a movement against rape that remains active even 50 years later.

Despite strong leadership and successes, patriarchal systems still hinder women's meaningful participation, keeping them on the socio-political margins. In post-apartheid South Africa, women were often alienated from political processes, with their critical issues dismissed as "soft" politics. In Nicaragua, since the onset of repression in 2018, feminist organizations have faced direct aggression, forcing the broader women’s movement to operate clandestinely.

Space is a source of power for women's movements. Physical spaces have become unsafe, leading movements to go underground or shift to online platforms. Regaining and fighting for space remains crucial, as these spaces are often taken away, highlighting the ongoing struggle for visibility and influence.

Agendas

Over time, the agendas of women's movements have evolved, initially focusing on reproductive rights and bodily autonomy, then shifting toward democracy, justice, and the right to live free from violence. However, these agendas have often faced tensions and contradictions. In South Africa, while women actively participated in democracy movements, they were frequently excluded from political processes. Crucial issues like reproductive rights and childcare were dismissed as "soft" political matters. The 2006 rape trial of Jacob Zuma led to significant backlash against women, with the ANC Women's League supporting Zuma instead of the victim.

In Australia, Indigenous rights movements prioritized equal pay for stockmen, land rights, and protesting Indigenous deaths in custody, often sidelining Indigenous women despite their involvement. The mainstream women's movement focused on rights like voting—granted to white women in 1901 but not to Aboriginal women until 1967—equal pay, and addressing violence. Yet, Indigenous women continued to be marginalized, even as they faced disproportionate rates of violence.

In Nicaragua, tensions arose between the women's movement and the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) after the movement supported Zoilamérica Narváez Murillo in her 1998 sexual abuse charges against her stepfather, Daniel Ortega. Since then, Ortega and Rosario Murillo have shown hostility toward feminists, labeling them derogatorily.

Similarly, in other marginalized communities, there is reluctance to address women's issues to avoid betraying the broader cause. Media focus on the deaths of white women reinforces a narrative that certain women's lives—Black women, First Nations women, poor women, Dalit women—are less valued.

Tensions

All of these characteristics and strategies operate within an ever-changing context of patriarchal interests, capitalism, state repression and violent politics. The women’s movement as a whole has always experienced backlash. The gains made by feminist movements are always fragile. It feels sometimes like one step forward, two steps back.